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Trip Report: Morocco April 7-20, 2019 Audubon Society of Portland Stefan Schlick ([email protected])

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Trip Report: Morocco April 7-20, 2019 Audubon Society of Portland Stefan Schlick (Sschlick@Audubonportland.Org) Trip Report: Morocco April 7-20, 2019 Audubon Society of Portland Stefan Schlick ([email protected]) Intro Portland’s first trip to Morocco was a full success!! We enjoyed the culture, making stops in Volubilis and Marrakech, the food including the mandatory (almost) daily tajine, stayed in truly fabulous places that you would pay $250/per night in the US and saw some pretty neat birds. Orchestrated mainly by Yeray Seminario of birdingthestraight.com who was also our guide for the trip. Yeray was wonderful, I can very much recommend him! We traveled in 2 vans without radios which was probably the worst oversight of the trip: The 22-seater that promised to us never got delivered. Oh well, we made do.. Highs, lows, notes ● Highs: ○ The colorful birds like the Hoopoe, European and Blue-cheeked Bee-eater did not disappoint. We scored on the larks and wheatear and managed to get them all. The 2 Egyptian Nightjars were among the coolest sightings we had. Of course, everybody enjoyed the Pharaoh Eagle Owls. The Cream-colored Courser and the 2 desert sandgrouse species (Spotted and Crowned) were also a wonderful experience. ○ We were able to witness migration in progress: Large circling White Stork flocks, good numbers of shorebirds, Gannets on the move up the coast and many little passerines following riparian areas along rivers in the otherwise inhospitable desert. ○ Seeing the different habitats that Morocco has to offer was a real treat. The Middle Atlas with its cedar forest, the High Atlas with snow and stark rocky alpine vistas, the lush Mediterranean areas along the north coast, witnessing how it got drier and drier as we moved inland, the rocky and sandy deserts of the interior and the impressive surf along the coast off Cape Rhir were all a fantastic experience we would not have wanted to miss. ● Lows: ○ We left Melinda’s bag in Ouarzazate, so had to send Mohammed, our driver, on a 10 hr drive to pick it back up. Actually, he didn’t seem to mind. :-) ○ We missed 3 of the specialty species for the region: Scrub Warbler, Tristram's Warbler and African Crimson-winged Finch. We gave it our best shot though. ○ We had a poor trip in terms of raptors, not even getting decent looks of Long-legged Hawk. On the other hand, we saw all the possible falcons of the area, including Barbary and Lanner. ● Notes: ○ Food was of very high quality. We never had a bad meal all trip long! ○ Lodging was also of very good quality all trip long. Most places were decorated in a traditional Moroccan way and were pure eye candy. ○ Temperatures were mostly cool, ranging from 60s to 70s at the coast. Our day in the High Atlas saw us put on all our clothes as the high at 8200 ft was only in the mid 40s. Daily Itinerary April 7, 2019: Arrival and Zaer Forest The flight from Paris arrived on time, so we were able to immediately drive out to the Zaer Forest to stay busy mid afternoon.. It was nice and warm and every bird was exciting. We found Western Bonelli’s Warbler, a displaying Woodlark, a migrant Common Redstart, our first of many African Blue Tits (which look very different from their European cousins), African Chaffinches, Woodchat Shrike and Booted Eagle. It was a fun way to get our adventure kickstarted! From there we headed to our hotel in the Rabat medina, Dar’Shan. Even though there was a mixup with the rooms we were able to nicely settle into the neat rooms. Dinner was a tajine-style couscous dish which was nothing short of awesome. We collapsed into bed shortly after. April 8, 2019: Merja Zerga, Sidi Boughaba Early morning on the way to the van we heard and saw House Bunting along the pathway out of the medina. We would be in for more later ... On our first day we drove up to Merja Zerga. We met our guide, Hassan, at the local hotel and found out to our surprise that he was not coming with us. So we had to fend for ourselves on a boat trip with 3 small boats and 3 unexperienced local skippers. We still did well, there were lots of birds! Shorebirds amasse with all the regulars present (1 Curlew Sandpiper was good), Audouin’s and Slender-billed Gulls, a male Montagu’s Harrier and 3 Greater Flamingos in the distance. Over lunch on a bluff in Moulay Bousselham we briefly watched the sea, but found pretty much nothing out there. But, in the sand dunes on the other side were 4 Stone Curlews though! Nice! In the afternoon we visited Sidi Boughaba near Kenitra. We immediately scored on Red-crested Pochard, Red-knobbed Coot, Marbled Teal and White-headed Duck! Greater Flamingos were also present in good numbers. Two Barbary Partridges flushed out from a scrubby hillside. Birding was fun and the weather was nice, so nobody wanted to leave. Cetti’s Warbler was singing, but we ran out of time. Overnight at Dar’Shan in Rabat where we also had another fabulous dinner. The guides stayed at the Riad Senso and liked that as well. Unfortunately there was yet another mixup with the van as the 22-seater was no longer available. We would have to make do with 2 vans (and 2 drivers) for the rest of our trip. April 9, 2019: Zaer Forest, Volubilis As we had a few minutes in the morning before breakfast, we met up on the roof of the Dar’Shan just after sunrise for operation House Bunting. It took a few minutes, but we all got several nice looks at the actually pretty common target bird. After that we were off to the Zaer Forest again, with 2 vans rather than 1. We immediately found a pair of Black-crowned Tchagras and had decent scope looks of them along the main road. After that we walked down the area we tried before 2 days ago and, unbelievably, found a Double-spurred Francolin despite the late morning hour. Not only that, everybody was able to see the bird in the scope. Two Barbary Partridges, a Great Spotted Woodpecker and more Western Bonelli’s Warblers were also noteworthy. Next up was Volubilis which we reached after a 2.5hr drive. The site was neat, yet there were a lot of tourists at the afternoon hour we were there. Most amazingly, we all got to see a Common Nightingale from up close during a 45min tour. Also seen were Lesser Kestrel, Corn Bunting, a super close Thekla Lark (likely near a nest site) and many Sardinian Warblers. A House Bunting was at the gift shop/museum. Then we took another 2hr drive to Azrou. It was a beautiful drive with the setting sun and we badly wanted to stop for the views, but had to make sure to make it to the hotel in time. The dinner at La Valley was awesome (with the best trout many of us ever had), as was the place itself, situated very scenically with stunning view of scrubby hills, mountains and the town itself. April 10, 2019: Around Ifrane, Cedar Forest, Middle Atlas, Zaida Plains Grand day today! First day where nothing went wrong! :-) We started early morning with a photo op of a large hotel with several stork nests and found 2 Little Owls posing for us nearby. Next up was a small pond near Ifrane where we scored on Seebohm’s Wheatear (which actually is a Northern Wheatear of the Moroccan subspecies), Ferruginous Duck, Green Sandpiper and a long-range Long-legged Buzzard. A larger mostly dried-up lake provided the backdrop for our Levaillant’s Green Woodpecker attempt. We first found Nuthatch, Short-toed Treecreeper, Mistle Thrush, Eared Grebe and our first Ruddy Shelducks. Further down the road we found our target and got fabulous looks at the Levaillant’s. Even better where the looks at several Hoopoes. Before lunch we also admired a pair of hunting Lesser Kestrels and Little Ringed Plovers at a grassy area. Then it was time to say goodbye to this lush area and start our drive to Midelt. A stop in the cedar forest for the Barbary Macaque was brief as there were way too many people and the beasts are now being fed by everybody. Our only Coal Tit came from this brief stop. Then we proceeded driving through the Middle Atlas though patches of woods and mostly open subalpine looking areas with lots of rocks. Very scenic! Along a narrow canyon were Black Wheatear, Blue Rock Thrush, Pied Flycatcher and Common Raven. We found a pair of Moussier’s Redstart along a little side road next to a pair of Seebohm’s Wheatear. A migrant Short-toed Eagle was finally correctly identified. Back down on the Zaida plains with the backdrop of the snow covered High Atlas, we tried for larks. We could not believe our luck when we found 3 singing Dupont’s Larks there! We were able to study the birds through the scope for quite a while and were fully satisfied. Also at the same spot were several Greater Short-toed Lark and a pair of Desert Wheatear. Wow! April 11, 2019: Gorge of the Hamza River, Ziz Valley Today we had to make the long trek from Midelt to Merzouga. We made several stops en route, but didn’t really get any substantial walking in. At the Hamza River gorge, we caught up on Black Wheatear, House Martin, Little Ringed Plover and Gray Wagtail.
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